Why I hate charging by time

Some time ago I was talking to a dentist who was a master at getting wisdom teeth out.He could remove pretty much any wisdom tooth — even difficult lowers — in 5 minutes or less. I looked at x-rays of some cases and it would have taken me around 30 minutes to do the same jobs.

The question is, which of us should charge more to remove a wisdom tooth — him or me?

Many dentists like to charge by time and for them the answer is that I should charge more. And, the longer I take the more I should charge.But please, take a moment to consider things from the patient's point of view.

If your receptionist said to a patient: "We have two dentists who can do your extraction. One who is really experienced and will get it done in 5 minutes and one who is not so experienced and will take 30 minutes. Which one would you like?" The vast majority would choose 5 minutes.

Even if the 5 minute extraction costed $200 more I bet that the majority of patients would choose it.Isn't that interesting? Most dentists think longer time equals higher fee. But, for patients, shorter time is preferable even with a higher fee.

So, my suggestion to you is that if you become really skilful and efficient with a procedure do not discount. If anything charge more.

Patients pay for an outcome that they want, not minutes in the dental chair which is something that they don't want.